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"Admittedly, it’s difficult for me to write an unbiased review of a Kate Atkinson novel. When I received this book from NetGalley, I immediately tweeted “she is our greatest living author, don’t @ me”, which – I actually wish someone would “@” me,..."
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Keep You Close is a thriller that takes real events and puts a spin on them. Our society is seeing the fallout of young people being radicalized online into supporting hate groups and even carrying out violent terroristic attacks. Throughout the worlKeep You Close is a thriller that takes real events and puts a spin on them. Our society is seeing the fallout of young people being radicalized online into supporting hate groups and even carrying out violent terroristic attacks. Throughout the world, Russian cyberwarfare is affecting elections and turning the world toward authoritarian ethno-nationalists as Putin seeks to discredit democracy outside Russia to prevent its resurgence in Russia. These threads are skillfully woven by Karen Cleveland with a twist.

FBI investigator Stephanie Maddox learns her son is being investigated as a possible terrorist, but she cannot square that with the boy she raised. She is certain he is being framed, but to what end and by whom? She soon comes to believe it all leads back to her son’s father, a U.S. senator and her rapist. In trying to clear her son, she unravels a conspiracy that reaches the highest levels of government—a threat as serious as the real threat we face now.

Keep You Close is a fast-paced thriller. From the first page, there is nonstop suspense. And of course, her son is either culpable or completely unaware and how can the readr or Stephanie know for sure? She can recall events that might be foreshadowing yet could also just be childhood tantrums. What is real?

That part of the story feels real. Now, the conspiracy is different. It feels like the conspirators are just too good at it, too all-knowing, too successful. They seem like villains 007 who would defeat 007. Of course, the real conspirators in our real world have successfully installed a compromised puppet in the White House, so who can say what is too far out there in conspiracy-world anymore?

Keep You Close will be released May 28th. I received an e-galley from the publisher through NetGalley

Keep You Close is a thriller that takes real events and puts a spin on them. Our society is seeing the fallout of young people being radicalized online into supporting hate groups and even carrying out violent terroristic attacks. Throughout the worlKeep You Close is a thriller that takes real events and puts a spin on them. Our society is seeing the fallout of young people being radicalized online into supporting hate groups and even carrying out violent terroristic attacks. Throughout the world, Russian cyberwarfare is affecting elections and turning the world toward authoritarian ethno-nationalists as Putin seeks to discredit democracy outside Russia to prevent its resurgence in Russia. These threads are skillfully woven by Karen Cleveland with a twist.

FBI investigator Stephanie Maddox learns her son is being investigated as a possible terrorist, but she cannot square that with the boy she raised. She is certain he is being framed, but to what end and by whom? She soon comes to believe it all leads back to her son’s father, a U.S. senator and her rapist. In trying to clear her son, she unravels a conspiracy that reaches the highest levels of government—a threat as serious as the real threat we face now.

Keep You Close is a fast-paced thriller. From the first page, there is nonstop suspense. And of course, her son is either culpable or completely unaware and how can the readr or Stephanie know for sure? She can recall events that might be foreshadowing yet could also just be childhood tantrums. What is real?

That part of the story feels real. Now, the conspiracy is different. It feels like the conspirators are just too good at it, too all-knowing, too successful. They seem like villains 007 who would defeat 007. Of course, the real conspirators in our real world have successfully installed a compromised puppet in the White House, so who can say what is too far out there in conspiracy-world anymore?

Keep You Close will be released May 28th. I received an e-galley from the publisher through NetGalley

The Last Thing She Remembers is an exciting suspense thriller that rockets from character to character, taking the unreliable narrator trope up a notch or two. A woman takes a train to Willshire, an English village, and goes to a house, knocking on tThe Last Thing She Remembers is an exciting suspense thriller that rockets from character to character, taking the unreliable narrator trope up a notch or two. A woman takes a train to Willshire, an English village, and goes to a house, knocking on the door, claiming she lives there and that she does not remember her name. She really does not remember anything of her life, worse each new day is a clean slate requiring her to keep notes from day to day so she can remind herself what happened.

The homeowners are Tony and Laura. At first Laura is welcoming, but when Tony suggests the stranger looks like a Jemma and the local doctor wonders if she could be Jemma Huish who used to live in that house, Laura wants nothing to do with her. For good reason! Jemma Huish is infamous for repeatedly calling to warn she feared she would kill someone before she slit her roommate’s throat. The antipathy that should have been directed at the mental health system that left her out to dry was instead directed at her and the suggestion this young woman could be her stoked village fears.

Irresponsible police and dire public warnings but the newly minted Jemma on the run, seeking help from Tony whose own fears of hereditary Alzheimers makes him fascinated by memory and memory loss, thus fascinated by Jemma. But is she a murderer? Is she Jemma Huish and if she’s not, why did she come to Willshire? To add to the confusion, another local thinks she might be his daughter, a daughter he never knew he had. Still another local speculates she is a Russian mole.

There is plenty of misdirection in The Last Thing She Remembers and all of it is perfectly fair. Because it is so fair, we perhaps begin to discern the outlines of a scheme at play. Or more accurately, more than one scheme. The plot never stops adding to the tension, propelling the reader forward and compelling us to keep reading without stop. No sleep for you! It all hangs together and people act as you might expect them to act. It was a good, strong mystery. It is weakened however, by too much epilogue, too much wrapping up the loose ends and telling us what happened. The plot was ingenious so long as it was not reviewed in retrospect. Trust us readers to understand the story without tying up everything in a neat package with a epilogue bow on top.

The Last Thing She Remembers will be released May 28th. I received an e-galley for review from the publisher through NetGalley.

Roman Count Down is the sixth in David P. Wagner’s Rick Montoya series. The story opens with Count Umberto Zimbardi taking a bus home for the first time in his life only to get murdered. His murder will occupy the attention of the main character RickRoman Count Down is the sixth in David P. Wagner’s Rick Montoya series. The story opens with Count Umberto Zimbardi taking a bus home for the first time in his life only to get murdered. His murder will occupy the attention of the main character Rick Montoya even though he probably should be focusing on launching his translation service rather than solving murders.

Rick’s story begins in Alberquerque as he says goodbye to his friends before flying to Rome and his new life there as a translator. His maternal uncle hosts him and helps him get settled while also involving him in the Zimbardi murder case, asking him to translate the Count’s journals which were writen in English. He discovers the Count was researching the history of the streets of Rome and found some skullduggery going on at the last street he was researching before his murder. Rick, his uncle, and Carmella who works for his uncle begin their investigations there.

Roman Count Down feels more like the first in a series rather than the sixth. Not surprisingly, it turns out to be a prequel. That may explain why so much of the story was focused on establishing Rick’s relationships and connections. That element of the story overwhelmed the mystery element. The detecting elements of the story were fair, we were provided the information that inspired Rick’s intuitive leaps.

Wagner excelled at creating a sensory image of Rome, not just visually, but also in terms of sounds, scents, flavors, and even the sensation of walking on ancient cobblestones. The sense of place is flawless. The mystery itself was thin and seemed more a vehicle for establishing Rick’s personal story rather than the central focus of the book. The characters seemed a bit flat, too much to type. In that vein, Rick’s friend Juan is an awful stereotype. Rick is irritated by his accent, how he pronounces his name Reek rather than Rick, which seems odd from someone whose name is pronounced with a long e in Spanish and Italian. He’s a walking stereotype and a disservice to the book. That Rick does favors for him is not kindness, it’s condescension.

It’s possible that the other books in the series will be better. They are not carrying the burden of starting a new business, finding a new place to live, and settling in. There’s a reason tv pilots are often tedious, the relentless introduction and explication. It just seems odd this happens in the sixth book.

Roman Count Down will be released May 21st. I received an e-galley from the publisher through NetGalley.

Preview — Roman Count Down
by David P. Wagner

“Sometimes when she woke from a flabbergasting dream Liz would lie very still to see if she could net it before it fled; perfectly still, eyes closed, not moving her head, as if the slightest shift would tip the story-bearing liquid, break its fragile meniscus and spill the night’s elusive catch.”
―
Helen Simpson,
Cockfosters

“There was something distinctly American about it all, a fundamental difference in perspective and place–in how they saw themselves in the world. And this was what made it so American–not that they felt compassion for mistreated workers three continents away, workers they had never seen or known, whose world they could not begin to understand, not that they felt guilty about their privilege, no,no not that either, but that they felt the need to do something. That they felt they had to power to do something about it. That was what made it so American. That they felt they had the power to do something–they assumed they had that power. They had been born with it–the ability to change the world–and had never questioned its existence, an assumption so massive as to remain unseen. The power and the responsibility to protect the people they imagined as powerless. The poor defenseless people of the Third World.

He felts a sudden queasy sadness. What if they knew what a real revolutionary was? How bloody a real revolution. He looked around, suddenly feeling the need to sit, and saw nothing but their faces, their round wet faces staring back at him.

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